Liam tries to teach Da'an the dangers of substance abuse in this, the first extraterrestrial after-school special.

Written by Robin Burger
Directed by Will Dixon

Words of What Passes for Wisdom

LIAM: I know what it's like to have a father you can't trust. It's like you've got this gaping hole inside of you. No matter how hard you try, you can't fill it. Ever.

RENEE: If he catches me, I'll just tell him I was spying for Doors. All's fair in love and industrial espionage.

DA'AN: How do humans resist temptation?    Related Links Earth: Final Conflict Roddenberry Productions Tribune Entertainment LIAM: Some find the will from within. Some never do.

Garwin Sanford - Mikhail Federov
Patricia Zentilli - Eva Gale
Bruce Gray - Edward Gale

Senator Edward Gale schmoozes with guests at a lavish outdoor party. The schmoozees are so busy guzzling glowing fluorescent cocktails that one assumes they are beyond caring about his brave advocacy of children's literacy programs.

A disheveled young woman crashes the party. It turns out she's the senator's daughter, Eva. She pulls a gun, asks Gale, "How could you do this to me?" and shoots him in the shoulder.

It's stunning -- and not in a good way -- how much the typical Earth: Final Conflict plot turns on technology that is either fantastically advanced or ludicrously outmoded. This episode commits the second of these sins.

It seems unlikely that a facility like Freedom that has so much to hide would guard its secrets so poorly, even if it's located deep in outer space.

Given the advanced technology seen in other episodes, why does Federov rely on a simple keypad for access to his secure areas? The series has established any number of other methods -- fingerprint, voiceprint, retina scan, DNA matching -- that would have made it harder for Renee to get past Freedom's security system.

Granted, we've all seen movies and programs in which clever characters bypass even the most advanced security, but the writer of "Sins of the Father" was apparently unwilling to make the effort to deal with DNA matching. Instead, the plot follows the path of least resistance to ensure Renee obtains the required information.

Speaking of plot-friendly security, why is it that no one in this series has ever hit upon the idea of tying their ID portal into the security network? That way, when an alarm sounds, the portal would automatically be deactivated, making it difficult, if not impossible, for intruders to escape interdimensionally.

At the risk of beating a dead fashion victim, J Street's "character development" continues to indicate she's nothing more than Augur Lite. The mercenary twist -- information for tchotchkes -- introduced in this episode mirrors Augur's own flirtation with technology stocks and self-enrichment.

I know, I know, it's still early in the season. If she's like the rest of the characters in the series, she almost certainly has a dark secret or two kicking around in her backstory. Perhaps the eventual revelation of these secrets -- and one hopes this development comes sooner rather than later -- will help distinguish J Street as something more than a plot device with an eye for thrift shop bargains.

Kryss is the substance that the Taelons consumed as food before they evolved into their current, energy-based form.

Da'an is the first Taelon to ever battle the heartbreak of addiction.

Did Da'an accept Sandoval's offer of kryss? If so, how will the agent exploit this weakness?

Have we seen the last of Federov?

For "First Breath", wherein "a covert alien experiment threatens to make mankind obsolete." If you ask me, it sounds like the New Coke debacle all over again.